


Becoming Legendary

by FallenForgivence



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-09 23:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20518298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenForgivence/pseuds/FallenForgivence





	Becoming Legendary

“Is that really everything?”  
She always sounded so innocent, despite her wicked intentions. Everyone always assumed the worst from her, because she’s always brought terrible endings to the plans of others.   
It wasn’t really her fault, being the holder of such a powerful evil would corrupt even the most innocent of souls, no matter how great their willpower.  
‘Yes. that is everything.’  
The voice that spoke back to her could only be heard by her, whispers something she simply could hear one day. Many dismissed what she could hear as simply hallucinations brought on by the death of her family. But they never listened.  
“And this is all I need to do…?”  
‘Yes.’  
She held the odd crystal, stolen from a jewelry store in the dead of night, the flickering reflection hiding something beneath. It was marbled, the core a composite material of some unknown make and type, encased beautifully in the red crystalline material. The voice that spoke to her told only that if she held the material within, then all her dreams would come true.  
“Well...here goes, I guess.” She took the small hammer, taken from a city guard, and placed the gemstone on the metal plate, salvaged from a destroyed starship of a special kind.  
The gem cracked so effortlessly, the stone within dripping with an ethereal darkness about it as the casing peeled away like sand. The girl stared in worry, the pressure of the voice bearing down upon her with greater stress than she’d ever known. Her head pounded so much, she could barely hear the sound of the sky above cracking open.  
‘Touch the core, stupid girl!’ The voice hissed in her ears with a harshness unlike any she’d felt before.  
“But….” The girl pleaded, fear clutching at her, overwhelming even her desperation to avenge her family, to undo this sick, twisted world that she lived on.  
‘Do you intend to die here?’ The voice sounded so unkind as it spoke, the sound of cracking glass filling the air as the girl stared at the stone before her. She couldn’t hear the sounds of heavy boots on the ground, the starships above growling angrily as the girl was surrounded.  
The heartbeat of the stone filled her eardrums, the world around her melted away in her mind. She never saw the buildings vanish like sand, the people fleeing as an unknown army bears down upon the world. All she could hear was the voice, and the beating of her own heart.  
Her hand reached out, a muffled voice screaming down at her, before the world seemed to draw slow across time. All she could hear was silence and the voice once more.  
‘Good girl.’ And darkness enveloped her.

“Where...where am I?” Notori saw only darkness, faint fractures floating in the dark, just ever so slightly out of reach.  
‘A better question, would be where are you not?’ The voice, she’d become used to called back to her from the darkness that surrounded her.  
“What’s happening?”  
‘A trip down memory lane, I would imagine.’  
Notori gasped softly, the dark swirling suddenly, a thin line of light coiling around her as the dark swelled. She watched as the dark all around her suddenly became land, fusing and forming into a pale shadow of her memories.  
“Hey, hey! Notori, do you like anyone?” One of Notori’s friends from her youth. A grey blur that sat atop a park bench, leaning back slightly.  
“Hrm...I dunno…” A reflection of Notori sat on the bench itself, swinging her legs as she thought.  
“Think anyone would miss you?” Her friends voice sounded like razor wire in the air, but she didn’t remember hearing her say that. A long pause fills the air, before the girl scoffs slightly, hopping down from the back of the bench. “Hey, my mom said I’m gonna be moving sometime soon. So I guess this’ll be the last we talk.”  
“Eeehhh?” Notori sounded so sad, but her friend seemed so unbothered by it. As Notori looked at the memory, she felt sadness once more, a pale white outline leaning against her back. “I guess she never really did see me as a friend…”  
‘And they say humans are boogeymen. Hmph.’ The voice echoes across the darkness, the pale white shade moving in the memory as it fades into the darkness once more.

‘Do you know why I chose you, child?’  
The voice spoke with such a scowl, Notori could hear it in the tone she spoke in at all times. She never seemed to approve of anything. The two stood before each other in the darkness, the pale shade and the hapless child.  
“Because I have potential?”  
She always tried to look for the upside in things, as hard as things may have been for her. She always tried her hardest.  
‘No, foolish girl.’  
That same dismissive tone, same agitated scoff at her attempts at optimism. It cut deeper than any blade she’d ever known, and she was very intimate with them from how often people took advantage of her misfortunate existence.  
“Then why won’t you go away?”  
It was her turn to be cutting against the voice. She’d spent so long being tormented by that same voice that spoke out against her. She did everything the voice said, always struggled and fought at the whim of these nagging voice that never left her.  
‘Hrm. Maybe you’ll see in time.’  
What was that supposed to mean? What was any of this nameless voice meant to mean? She never knew, and she honestly felt like she’d never know.

How long had the two of them been here together, through all of this chaos that was her whirlwind life? Notori often asked herself such questions as she stood in the darkness that engulfed her. She didn’t know how long she’d been within this place, speaking and watching ancient memories, but she knew that it felt like entire ages of her life.  
They spoke at seldom times, the pale shadow she knew as Shadow by now, simply coming and going with each memory. Her callous and snide voice always cutting against her psyche as she watched each memory.  
Through all of them, one thing remained prevalent throughout. Shadow spoke out in times of crisis, though Notori had never noticed or known it before. The day the sky fell, a great vessel collapsing from space that consumed her homeworld in tumultuous hellfire, Notori thought that she’d die.  
Great wreckage burned from the sky, plasma fire clouds scorching the very air, making each breath hot within each gulp of air as Notori ran. Escape ships barely had time to lift off the ground as the starship fell to the world. And yet, her legs pounded against the hard pavement with growing weight, her legs as burning as her body felt a weight unlike anything she knew before in her youth.  
Her home scorched beneath as shatter hunk of molten slag, no sign of her parents, her brother, her aunt. No sign of anyone from her home as she fled to one of the few rescue vessels that collected the survivors on the world that boiled from a simple accident.  
A starship that collapsed because of a single fault in the engine. An unpredictable, unpreventable disaster that cost many their lives, and threw countless more into chaos. And through it all, the voice urged her onwards, her body collapsing as the rescue vessel departed the world.  
But that was merely a single memory of her youth. A horrible memory, yet she knew others.  
Meeting her new family, and finding out how cruel an unloving mother could be. Going to a new one, and having an apathetic father. Unwanting foster families. And then the ones who came to love her, wanting her to be their child, caring and kind.  
They always met the same fate. Disaster, chaos, and misfortune. But through it all, the constant change, the constant misfortune, the unkind and uncaring friends she made that would inevitably come to hate her for her optimistic nature, the voice remained constant.  
It warned her of when to leave, to run for her life. When to defend herself or it would end. Spoke for her when she couldn’t speak for herself.  
“Hey. Shadow.”  
‘What is it this time?’  
“Are you me?”  
‘Don’t be foolish.’  
“Do you have a name?”  
‘Not one that I can remember.’  
“Oh.”  
Notori grew quiet for a time, time passing her by as it often did in this place. She still didn’t know what this place was, or how long she’d been here. But maybe she was growing to like it.

Enough time had passed that the memories no longer came, Notori and Shadow standing before each other silently as they watched the other. Notori felt so much older, though not a single day had passed. She’d grown so used to this place, she kept the time in her own manner, counting the number of heartbeats.  
“Shadow, what are you?”  
‘Such an odd question.’  
“You never answer me. Why is that?”  
‘Perhaps I don’t see fit to answer foolish questions.’  
Notori looked at her for a time, tilting her head slightly. Their interactions were always like this.  
“Why did you have me steal those things?”  
‘Now you ask the right questions.’  
“That’s not an answer.”  
‘And cleverness. How unexpected.’  
Notori gave an annoyed noise, crossing her arms at Shadow.  
“Still not an answer. Is it because you wanted to come out? I would’ve help you if you just asked for help. You were really rude whenever we would find something like that stone.”  
‘Does it really matter?’  
“To me it does. We’re with each other, whether you want to be or not, so wouldn’t it be better if we got along?”  
‘Hrm.’  
Notori pouted now as she stared at Shadow. She could never find a way to focus on the ethereal form that made up Shadow, as if looking through an opaque window from a dark room.  
“You’re not human, are you?”  
Shadow finally chuckled, the first time she’d ever heard the spectre make any noise that didn’t sound derisive or dismissive of her existence.  
‘And what, exactly, am I? Oh wise fool?’  
Notori could think of countless insults from how often she was insulted, but instead chose to say, “I think you’re better than me.”  
Silence. A long, piercing silence, Shadow faltering in full at the sentiment. Two firsts in a single moment.  
“You always knew how to keep me out of danger, always knew when someone was lying or trying to use me. You protected me. So….you’re better than me, because you protected someone who couldn’t protect themselves.”  
Notori smiled fully, taking a firm stance before Shadow.  
“I think….whatever you might be, you’re a hero!”  
Shadow couldn’t help but laugh. A loud, full gutted laugh that filled the silent darkness. She laughed for what seemed like days as Notori stood there in confusion, utterly perplexed by the laughter as it continued.  
“Did...did I say something weird? I did, didn’t I?”  
‘Me?! A hero?! Oh, sweet child. Sweet, foolish, blind child!’  
“Eeehhh?”  
‘Your mind is my purgatory! Of course I’d protect it! You’re the first I could find that would listen to my voice!’  
Notori blinked twice, tilting her head to the side in confusion.  
“So...why did you have me take those things?”  
The Shadow suddenly stopped laughing, looking at Notori as the persistent girl asked the question once more.  
‘I’d hoped it would let me out of your mind. Give me an escape. But it seems this cursed form of mine won’t be released so easily. I can do little more than lend you my power, and since you’re too weak and feeble, we’ve been stuck inside my shell since.’  
“Oh! Do you know how long it’s been outside? Wait...are we in my mind? It sure is empty in here if so.”  
‘Guess this is what the humans mean by ‘empty headed’.’  
“That’s mean.”  
Notori pouted at the shadow, crossing her arms again as she huffed.  
“So how do we get out?”  
‘You ask that as if I know.’  
“Well….you knew how to try and get yourself out, so you’d know how to get us both out, right?”  
‘Clever little…’  
Notori gave the shadow a smug look as she rocked on her heels, leaning towards the shade.  
“Soooo…?”  
The shadow let out a groan of annoyance, sighing in defeat as Notori pressed the issue, now circling Shadow as she pestered her.  
‘If, and this is only an IF! If we were to reduce how much control I have, you could move your body again, but it would essentially be using my power.’  
“Is that a bad thing?”  
‘Yes! It’d mean I won’t be free!’  
“Eeehhh?”  
The two watched each other, Notori looking down after a time, staring at the endless blackness beneath them both. Her eyes drew softer as she smiled softly.  
“How about...I let you out, sometimes? I’ll find a way to save you from this.”  
‘. . .’  
“I mean it. I really do.”  
The shadow looked to the darkness around them, a silence suspended in the air between the two for a long beat of Notori’s heart. It felt like time stretched outwards and onwards, the Shadow ruminating on the idea of eventually being free, but only in return for giving up her freedom for the time being.  
‘Deal.’  
Notori couldn’t respond with her elation, as the darkness cracked and faded away, chunks of crystalline shards falling away from her body as she breathed in what felt like the first time in her life.  
Air rushed into her lungs, her vision growing sharper than it’d ever been, her legs twitching with excitement as she shifted, crystalline shards falling away all around her. Somewhere, a voice yelled at her, but she couldn’t care less about any of it. Then came the feeling of a powerful force on her head, the ground spiraling out from under her, the sky rapidly soaring past her vision as she spotted every star, every moon that drifted around the world.  
“Haha!” She couldn’t help but laugh as a bullet zipped past her face, moving like the air itself was molasses, her eyes flicking and watching it spin through the air.  
It felt like she was alive for the first time in her life, the buzzing of metal barely noticable as she found herself on her back. She couldn’t help herself as she kicked out, soaring into the air with far greater power than she’d ever felt in all her years of running.  
That’s right...she ran from all her problems. From the doubts, the conceited voices, the cynical words of others. But she didn’t feel like running away this time. She just felt like running for once.  
“This is awesome!” She threw out her arms, calling out as she fell to the ground once more, hitting it hard enough to crack the concrete beneath her, voices yelling out as she ruffled her hair.  
Crystalline shards floated away from her head like shards of glass shattered from a mirror. Yet they fell with her, floating there so aimlessly as she tilted her head softly, elation filling her, raising her hands to look at the crystals that creeped alone it. It looked like marble, creeping along her skin and etching itself in her veins, yet soft as silk to the touch.  
All around her, men and women of various races shouted at her, guns and weapons pointed at her as she could do nothing more than smile, a crack running along her face from how hard she smiled back at them.  
“C’mon!”  
She dropped low to the ground, and ran. She ran to her heart’s content, dust and dirt flying away behind her as she darted around the uptight military that came to put her down. She didn’t have a care in the world as she ran, bullets whizzing by her head as the voices yelled at her the whole while.  
“I wonder…” she stopped in place and stared at the sky. And then she simply jumped. A test of her new legs, her new gifted power, her new freedom. And soon she found herself in space, two starships drifting there, waiting for those on the ground below to tell them what’s happening.  
“Is this what you could feel, all the time?” Notori questioned, floating there in the blueness of space, the nearby sun scorching her skin with radiation that seemed to simply reflect off of it, or heal as fast as it bleached under the star’s radiance.  
‘More or less.’ The voice didn’t sound snide, nor even condescending. ‘My power was far more vast than simply this.’  
“I can’t wait to see what you could do!”  
‘You will. One day.’ Shadow’s voice sounded so menacing, yet Notori didn’t seem to care, too in the moment to think past the intentions of the shadow that lived in her mind.

After the day Notori and the Pale Shadow joined hands, Notori drifted in space, hidden aboard the ship that had come for her in the first place, sat on the outside of its hull as she snuck food from inside. She didn’t need to eat or drink anymore, not with these odd crystalline powers of the shadow’s, but she enjoyed it either way.  
“A routine makes the day.” she would say whenever she ate, much to the disbelief of the shadow.  
“Hey. I wanna ask you some things.”  
‘If this is anything like when you were trapped in your mind, you’d talk without stop. So I’ll give you five questions.’  
“That seems mean, but okay.”  
Notori thought for a time as the ship warped through slipspace, the streaks of color outside much prettier than whenever Notori saw them from the viewing decks during her many transfers between homes.  
“Hrm...how old are you?”  
‘How old is the universe?’  
“That’s pretty old..”  
‘Foolish girl. To put it simply, I’m far older than anything you could comprehend. To say you’re little more than a speck on my memory that I eagerly await forgetting, is to do a disservice to specks everywhere.’  
“Mean.”  
Notori gave an annoyed look at the streaks of space as she sat on the hull of the ship. She was trying to decide on where to head next, growing bored of just sitting out here and watching the passing planets whenever the ship would stop somewhere.  
The two sat in silence for a long time, at least a few days as the ship traveled by its own means.   
Most starships traveled by Slipspace, going into a fold in space that let them jump between two long distances through a means Notori didn’t quite understand. Larger ships, like the galaxy sides ships that the Sovereign Shield and its many branches used, called Centurions, used Warps. Truly massive gateways that allowed them to simply arrive at a location on a whim, their titanic forms so large that most people never noticed their presence from the sheer size of them. There were a few rare ships, smaller and alien in design, like the personal vessel of the Shield Emperor himself, that could travel through an unknown place called Hyperspace, that many artists claimed was a land of pure color and beauty. But the kinds of ships that interested Notori the most, were the extremely rare Consular ships.  
Relics of a lost age that used something called Transverse Crossing, a special kind of movement between entire universes that used the same principle as the Psytozian Homeworld, a starship shaped like a planet.  
Notori barely had time to think on her studies of astral travel for starships, as the ship she was on departed slipspace, coming out around a large human world. At this point, most worlds had humans on them, in some capacity, but the bigger colony worlds were usually named with human terms.  
They often called capital worlds in the local system some variant of ‘Earth’, to make anywhere their home, to help prevent homesickness away from ‘Mother Earth’. Any planet after that was called something similar to Mars, but the other worlds would have wildly variant names, thought up by whoever colonized it first.  
In this system, the ship didn’t head towards Terra Minora, it made its way towards one of the outlying human colony worlds of Upsilon VI, a large moon orbiting a supermassive gas giant.  
At some point, the universe grew in size. No one was sure how or why, but many more informed individuals said it was thanks to ‘gods’ or something. Most worlds were too large for humanity to settle on, the gravity too great for them to handle without naturalizing to it permanently. So most smaller, earth-like worlds were settled instead, with permanent societies set up as they popped up on the largest, harsher worlds that provided permanent living.  
‘You can stop educating me on your irritating human history, anytime you like.’  
“But it’s fun!”  
‘Calling it a ‘fun fact’ does not, in fact, make it fun.’  
“You’re such a spoilsport.”  
‘I don’t play sports.’  
“We should fix that when you get out of super brain prison!”  
Notori laughed to herself at this as the shadow groaned audibly in her mind. She didn’t need to make noises, but she did in the hopes of irritating Notori into being less of a ‘goody goody two shoes’ as shadow called it.

The two spent nearly a month on the world of Upsilon VI, blending in by simple virtue of how wild and fragrant human cultures tended to be. No one questioned a random teenage girl with marbled skin, because body mods were common enough that she wasn’t the only one who looked so peculiar.  
“Hrm...I wonder if there’s any work we could do?” Notori looked at a job request board, the two having been idle long enough that the ship they arrived on had departed on its own accord.   
‘Remember, child, we are to blend in until you adjust enough for me to give you more of my power.’  
“I know, I know. But it’d be fun to do something, y’know?”  
‘I do not.’  
“Eeehhh?”  
Notori looked over the board, before spotting something that caught her interest. A sign for a rally and race, something to do with anything goes rules.  
“This looks fun!”  
‘It says you need a vehicle.’  
“Nu-uh. Says here a vehicle is optional. Besides, I wanna see how fast I can go with your power.”  
Notori holds a leg up, wiggling it in the air as Shadow grunted in annoyance once more. Notori was sure this would be something fun to pass the time, even if they only did it once or twice.  
“Okay, so this says it’s at…”  
She looks around in the crowded street, humming to herself as she looks for her destination, wandering aimlessly for any signs of a landmark or guide to where she wants to be. By the time night has fallen, the two moons drifting into the sky above, Notori finally stumbled upon her destination.  
“I think this is it? Hey, is this the… ‘no holds barred back alley rally’?”  
Notori approached one of the gruff looking ladies near the track as custom cars and speedsters ran about on it. The woman looked down at her and huffed shortly. Not everyone spoke the same language, and even with readily available universal translators, not everyone wore them.  
“I guess this is it.” Notori sighed slightly as she looked down on the track below. She began to make her way down to the track, only for the same woman to put a hand to her chest and point to a nearby sign.  
“Oh.”  
Admission fee.  
“We can watch for free, right?”  
The woman arched an eyebrow, before simply rolling her eyes and taking her hand off of Notori’s chest. Down below, racers ran and rode along the tracks, Notori sitting down beside the gruff looking woman as she watched them all ride and run to their hearts’ content.

The next few weeks Notori spent with the racers was some of the most fun she’d ever had. The gruff woman she came to know as Marlow introduced her after a few days to the pit racers, and she slowly started to learn about each of them.  
It was when they asked if she had any interest in running, that they finally let her on the track. Notori couldn’t believe how fast or clever some of them had to be to survive such intense races, and even though she could be fast, faster than any of them if she wanted to, it was fun to see how much better at this kind of thing they were.  
Marlow came to care for Notori, the two getting along better than anyone Notori had ever known in her life. Even Shadow seemed to take a liking to the gruff, tough, rough and tumble woman that was the bouncer for the race track.  
“Hey, Marlow?”  
“Hrm?” Marlow looked down at Notori as the two watched the racers do their warm up runs for the night.  
“Do you think...I could do this kind of thing?”  
Marlow chuckled lowly, Notori giving her an annoyed noise as she crossed her arms at the older woman. The younger woman gave her senior a raspberry and turned back to the tracks, kicking a toe on the ground in idle irritation.  
“Someday.”  
Marlow pulled Notori closer, ruffling her hair as the two watched the track.  
“Yer a good kid, kid. Bit rough around the edges, moreso with those body mods of yours, but...you’ve got potential in ya. You’d make a great runner. Heart a’ gold and legs like a racehorse.”  
Notori shoved out of the arm, laughing in embarrassment at Marlow, even if she did take the compliment to heart. Even Shadow seemed to chuckle in amusement.  
Marlow crouched down in front of Notori and poked her in the chest, Notori rocking on her heels lightly. The older woman smiled at her softly.  
“You’re a good kid. But the world’s an ugly place. All the worlds are. Never think twice about doing the right thing, and if the consequences swing ‘round to bite you in the butt...learn from it. Else you’ll end up like me. All gruff and no sense of humor.”  
Notori laughed at this, Marlow joining her as the two turned back to the track and watched the races once more.   
“Hey Marlow?” Notori looked up at her, smiling softly. “You’re awesome.”  
Marlow merely chuckled and shook her head, ruffling Notori’s hair once more.  
The ground quaked again, Marlow stood over Notori as the two stayed low, explosions rumbling in the distance. Marlow kept an eye out as the racers ran for their lives, battleships coming down from all directions.  
“Shhh...It’s alright. Stay low, keep your eyes up, and follow me.” Marlow tapped Notori twice on the shoulder, the two of them moving quietly through the chaos as the unknown army came down with their unrestrained wrath.  
The ground rumbled constantly as the two made their way through the broken buildings, their soft footsteps muffled by the screams as racers fled for their lives, military sounding voices shouting at them constantly.  
‘We could simply kill them all.’  
The shadow whispered this to Notori, sending a chill along her spine as she followed along behind Marlow, her mind split between the two. Marlow had become like a mother to her, a caring and loving protector, tending to her through the tough times and the good times. The first true family she’d been able to find on her own, that didn’t vanish before her as soon as something went wrong.  
“But-”  
“Quiet kid.” Marlow spoke with authority, not knowing about the Shadow in Notori’s mind, leading her along as she stopped to peek around a corner. “Dammit…” Marlow hissed softly as she inspected their surroundings, her look desperate as the sounds of boots trudging all around showed how cornered they truly were.  
‘All you need to do, is ask.’  
Notori looked up at Marlow, the Shadow’s voice growing ever closer as it tempted her with its power, offering the kind of power that allowed her to come to this place originally. And for the first time, since they sat on that battleship almost six months ago, Notori turned inwards.  
“Will you protect her?” The pale shadow took a step back, the second question resonating in the dark mindspace that they both inhabited. Notori showed no fear, no hesitation, no inkling of doubt in her mind.  
‘If that is what you desire. Then i shall do all in my power.’ The voice backed down, Notori’s willpower having grown stronger the longer she spent using the shadow’s power. The longer she went on adventures of her own will, and the more she found people to protect.  
Marlow knelt down before Notori, gripping her shoulders as she prepared to say anything to calm the younger woman. Notori was barely 18, but to Marlow she was still a kid. But before she could speak, Notori’s eyes opened softly and she smiled warmly.  
“Marlow...do you trust me?”  
Marlow blinked at her and let out a soft sound of surprise.  
“Y-Yes, what...what kind of…?”  
“Thank you for everything. But...I haven’t been honest with you. Please...forgive me.”  
Marlow let go of Notori as she stepped back from her. Along her skin, the marbled stone cracked and revealed the crystals beneath, Notori stepping out into the open and whistling sharply, her voice magnified by the sharpness of her tongue on her teeth, the crystals taking over. All around, soldiers and vehicles stopped and turned to her as she raised her arm.  
“You want me?! Come and get me!” Notori’s body launched forwards like a missile, her form colliding with one of the APCs that roamed the tracks, smashing through it like paper as she skidded to a stop a few feet on the other side of it.   
In either hand, she held the driver and co-pilot from the vehicle, both knocked unconscious by the force of her movement as the APC crumbled on itself. Notori dropped both of them, standing up defiant and proud as bullets ripped through the air towards her, only to bounce off of her hardened skin.  
“No killing.” She said firmly, her footsteps rippling along the ground as cracks formed all around her strong left.  
‘As you wish.’  
Suddenly, massive pillars of crystals erupted all around the tracks, soldiers and military knocked off their feet, weapons destroyed, people knocked off their feet as Notori turned her head to the sky, a crawling hatred seething along her skin as she kicked off the ground, rocketing through the air like a missile once more.  
Each time she landed on a carrier, the pilot recoiled from her, even as she glared them down, stunning and shocking every soldier that came for her, until she found herself in the atmosphere once more, staring down not a battleship.  
This time, a proper capital ship rested in the skyline as Notori floated there, kicking off the atmosphere itself, crystals raining from beneath her foot as she launched towards the command deck of the ship.  
Standard freelance human design, slipspace engines, command deck built to be at the forefront of the ship. She knew the design by heart from how long she spent studying starships in her free time.  
Her feet collided with the tempered glass of the command deck, cracking the reinforced glass and causing spiderweb cracks to form all the way to the edges of it. Notori leaned close to the window, a command crew sitting there in shock and surprise as they watched her point to the captain of the ship.  
The glass vibrated as she spoke, the crystals on her feet seeping into the ship itself.   
“Leave. And never return.”  
The captain merely returned her gaze with a level stare of his own, before giving the order to retreat. As his orders ran throughout the ship, the vessels below began to return to orbit, departing from their search mission for her.  
Notori huffed at the captain of the ship, before launching backwards, heading down to the planet below once more. By the time she arrived on solid land, the soldiers and their ships had departed in full, leaving the city question who they were, and why they attacked. No one had come to harm, yet the event had unsettled and uprooted many who simply wanted to live their lives on the rimworlds.

It took three days for Notori to find Marlow, and when she did, the two simply looked to each other in silence. The two stood at the doorway to the recovery shelter, the racers giving her a lukewarm greeting as they went about their own business. No casualties, but lots of damage done to the tracks, cities, and even a few destroyed city blocks.  
“Marlow, I-”  
Marlow shook her head, pulling Notori close to her as she pet her head. They shared a silent moment once more, before Notori pulled back.  
“I need to go.”  
“I know.”  
Marlow sighed softly as she looked down at the young woman, kneeling down and ruffling her hair softly, giving her a warm smile. They locked eyes, and Notori felt a swell of emotion, tears coming to her eyes.  
“You might not be my kid, but you’re a good kid. And hells...I’m gonna miss you every moment you’re gone. But...never stop, you hear me? Never stop bein’ a good kid. No matter what happens, you’ll always be the one we look up to.”  
Marlow pulled Notori into her arms once more as Notori cried softly.  
“I...mom…” She couldn’t help it, Marlow letting out a relieved sigh as she petted Notori’s head.  
“You’re a good kid. Now go out there and be better. Than any of us.”  
Marlow pushed Notori away from her, smiling as she held back tears in her eyes, doing her best to not break down crying. She had a reputation as a hardass to uphold, after all.  
“Go on.”  
Notori rubbed her eyes as she nodded shortly, the others in the hangar waving her off, having grown used to her presence, her laughter, her silliness, her simply minded questions. Notori looked to them all, and turned as she steeled herself.  
‘Are you sure about this?’  
Notori nodded once and took that first, hardest step. She walked outside to the open yard, and with her final step on the world she’d come to feel like home, she departed. The clouds streaked by her as her streaks trailed behind her, and then space welcomed her. The great, black, bleak space, dotted with countless stars as she let out a single gasp from the pain of it all.  
And then she left.

‘We can’t keep drifting, child.’  
“I know.”  
Notori and Shadow shot through space like a starship, Shadow’s power fueling her journey. A full year had passed as they shot along through slipspace, Notori’s body able to withstand more of Shade’s power as they continued to practice.  
In the time they had spent shooting between systems, Notori had finally learned the name of her enemy, the face of which still hid away from her sight.   
The League of Martyrs, a group formed specifically to hunt and kill her and shadow. Originally an unnamed group of villains that simply sought chaos, after the destruction of their original fleet at the hands of an unknown gravity collapse, a new group stepped forwards, the proteges of the originals. They hunted her, planning to kill her and experiment on Notori’s body to extract Shadow, without concern or cause for how to do so.  
According to Shadow, it didn’t sit right with her to simply be ripped out. So she chose to fight along side of Notori.  
“I think they might be in this next system.”  
‘And if they’re not?’  
“Then we keep searching. I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me or your existence.”  
‘How noble.’  
Notori gave an annoyed look, but sighed slightly at Shadow. She's finally gotten used to Shadow’s sarcastic and dry humor, and the more they shared her body, rather than fought for it, the more she felt like she understood Shadow.  
“While we travel, got any good stories?”  
The two had gotten used to sharing things more, at least Shadow had. With all the time they spent alone with each other, the more Notori grew curious of Shadow’s past, and how she ended up stuck inside Notori’s mind.  
‘Such as?’  
“What about...the last thing you remember?”  
Shadow was silent for a time as they traveled along in slipspace, the stars streaking past them silently.  
‘The last thing I remember...was fighting someone. I’d reached the pinnacle of my power, countless eons of planning had come to fruition, and I was at the top of my game. But there was this...creature. He stood in defiance of me, of my victory. I didn’t think anything of it at the time...I guess I was too full of myself…’  
Notori snickered to herself, Shadow making an audible noise of complaint.  
“You? Full of yourself? I can hardly imagine.”  
‘Ha-ha. How very funny. But yes, I was full of myself. The stronger you get, the less you empathize with others. When you are incomparable to all things, you begin to fade away into your own mindless plans.’  
“Sounds...lonely.”  
‘I guess it was. I had followers. Foolish creatures that mistook me for being better than them, simply because they had no betters themselves. But I spent most of my existence alone. As angry as I am for being slain on that day...should I ever meet that odd creature again, I would like to thank him for opening my eyes.”  
“You said once, that you were trapped in a purgatory. What’d you mean?”  
‘Hrm. I spent an incalculable eons trapped in a hell, made personally for me. I don’t remember how I escaped, but when I did, I was trapped in the body of a child. I thought nothing of it at the time, but as the child grew, I realized how powerless I had become. I would speak, and they wouldn’t listen. I don’t know how many bodies I’ve gone through since the first.’  
“Oh. Well...if mine ever falters on you, feel free to give me a swift kick in the imagination!”  
Notori smiled happily as she flew along, the shadow making a soft noise in response. As they grew silent, they came out of slipspace, arriving around a distance moon world in a far flung system. One of the furthest rimworlds, so far from the universal core that it could see the Sentinel World that drifted at the very breach of the universe. At least one of them, anyways.  
“We’re here.” Notori floated slowly around the rimworld, the moon their destination. The moon orbited the only planet in this far flung system, the lone star pulsing a soft red as it hosted the megaworld.  
As the two began to fly closer towards the moon, a beacon of light washed across them, locking on and pulling them towards the world with a soft tug. A retraction beam, the gravity engine on the world pulling them towards one of the hangars.  
‘There’s no guards. This doesn’t seem right.’  
“We’ll be fine.”  
Notori didn’t sound convinced of herself as they let the beam pull them closer, landing in the hangar with a soft clack of Notori’s crystalline heel on the metal flooring. True enough, no guards stood waiting for them, the hangar completely empty. The feeling of a trap crawled up Notori’s spine as she slowly walked forwards, a pulsing line on the floor guiding her forwards into the base.  
For a painfully long time, she followed the guiding markers, traveling deeper and deeper into the base with a growing sense of unease. Shadow’s power could handle bullets and energy blasts, but neither of them knew if it could handle anything like a battleship’s battery of anti-ship cannons.  
After a unsettlingly long time had passed, they came to a doorway, the door already open, and the smell of sterilized materials wafting from the room. From within, an elderly woman spoke to them softly.  
“Come in.”  
Notori squinted suspiciously at the doorway, before stepping inside. On the other side, an elderly woman sat in a medical chair, right arm and leg covered with her gown, as ten soldiers stood on either side of her, entirely unarmed.  
The thing that unsettled Notori wasn’t the old woman or the disarmed soldiers. It was the crystals that she often left behind in her fights and movements, currently fused to the twenty soldiers as they stand silently, eyes whited out and empty.  
“Child. Come closer. I have a proposition for the one you hold within you.”  
Notori turned slightly, the door closed behind her as she looked back at it. She could feel the movement of the crystalline soldiers, their still bodies only shifting to watch her with their empty, hollow eyes.  
“I swear that you will not be harmed.” The woman spoke in a soft, almost trusting voice, her body leaning forwards in the medical chair as she watched Notori with a level gaze.  
Notori stepped forwards, watching all of them with a calm, quiet look as she looked each soldier in the eyes, the shadow coming to the forefront to look through Notori’s eyes. They could feel that something was wrong with all of this, yet the elderly woman seemed so disarming that Notori felt less in danger than she knew she should.  
“No need to speak, young one. Merely hear me out. I wish to play host to the one trapped within your body, simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less. My ambitions are only for the freedom of a creature far greater than any of us. I am even willing to make sacrifices.” The woman waved a hand to the many augmented humans, their bodies as unmoving as expected as she continued to watch Notori.  
Notori could feel the excitement from Shadow, the possibility of freedom far closer than ever, and it could be hers so easily. A way out that didn’t require this slow, tedious release of power into Notori’s body, but an immediate release from her tormenting hell, a body all her own, to do with as she pleased.  
“Shadow-”  
‘I could be free. Free of this prison.’  
Notori felt apprehensive, but spoke calmly, looking at the elderly woman as she took a step forward.  
“What do you intend to do with this power?”  
“Do with it? Set it free, of course. When in the service of a god, do you ask what they intend to do, or do you bow and do as they command?” The woman scoffed, waving a hand dismissively as she leaned back in her seat.  
“This doesn’t feel right.” Notori took a step back, shadow causing her to falter, her overwhelming desire for freedom taking hold of Notori’s body as the soldiers all around began to move.  
“Your power seeks to be free. And with you so clearly resisting it...help her.” The woman snapped a finger, the sound echoing like glass cracking as the soldiers rapidly surrounded Notori, their movements on par with how fast she could move.  
‘Freedom. Yes, yes, let me out. Let me out of this hell!’ Shadow practically screamed as Notori could feel her heart skipping a beat, the soldiers drawing closer, Shadow’s form growing blurred, distant, hazy as they drew close.   
“No-” Notori had no chance to resist as the soldiers took her in their hands, her crystalline powers reacting to their touch, crawling along the broken skin of the creatures, their flesh melting away to reveal the corrupting marble that rested beneath their forms, alien and distant eyes fading in as they all drew back.  
‘Freedom. So much freedom. So many forms, so many bodies!’ The voice spoke not in Notori’s mind, but from the mouth of a soldier, all of them looking themselves over as they stepped back from Notori.  
No one cared as Notori laid on the ground, gasping for air as the crystals in her body no longer obeyed her, her body heavy and unwilling to do as she asked. Crystals cracked and crumbled from her skin as it slowly regained color, her head pounding with a thousand hammers as her ears rang in pain. She could swear she felt hot and cold at the same time, blood dripping from her eyes as the power left her form.  
Whilst Shadow danced about the room, reveling in her new forms, the old woman watching with fascination, Notori writhed on the floor in agony, her body rejected by the very power that kept her alive through everything.  
‘Run.’ Her mind screamed at her, her legs so heavy as she pulled herself up to all fours, the others too distracted to care as she staggered to the doorway, slipping out as it opened, laughter filling the halls behind her, a crawling marble etching along the walls as Shadow’s power flowed, unrestricted by her body.  
She fled to the hangar, looking out at the vast emptiness, before her heart dropped into her gut as she remembered she had none of her powers anymore. Instead, she stumbled to a starship, a standard class freight ship meant for short jumps between fleets. She sat at the pilots seat and looked over it, trying to remember anything she could about the vessel as she tried to catch her breath.  
Each gulp of air felt hot in her lungs, like glass was cutting up her insides, her eyes cold and wet with tears from the agony. She managed to start the ship only out of persistence as she launched immediately, flying as far and fast as she could away from this distant moon.  
‘Sleep.’  
Her body felt so heavy, her mind was numb as she drifted outwards through space, engines cutting after several minutes. She stared out at the endless darkness that greeted any who went as far as the Sentinel Worlds. And then she blacked out.

Four days passed before Notori awoke, thirsty for the first time in almost two years, her body still hot from its own heat. She drank whatever she could on the ship as it flew towards the lone planetoid that sat on the edge of the universe, the Sentinel world.  
No matter what she looked for, the endless darkness of the Universal Abyss stares back at her, light so far gone this far out, that there was nothing to even look at or gaze upon. And yet, Notori felt like something was staring back at her from the abyss, but whenever she focused on it, the movements seemed to stop.  
Yet, as she drifted onwards towards the odd world that sat at the edge of everything, the further she felt from it, the further she felt from anything. She couldn’t muster the energy to cry, the energy to give up even. It felt pointless, to run from everything, then when she finally fought, to lose everything.  
“You look like shit.” Spoke an unknown voice from within the freighter.  
“Who-?” Notori wheezed, coughing roughly as she turned and nearly threw up on the floor, her body still in agony as she tried to not fall out of the seat. It took her nearly five minutes to catch her breath again, rolling back in her seat as she looked over to the co-pilots seat, only to see what looked like a..small...bat creature.  
“Not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Human, right?” The creature spoke such fluent common, it made Notori’s mind swirl with questions, primarily of which how this creature had gotten on board, but she could do little more than nod at it.  
“You can call me Sentinel. Yes, that Sentinel. So, what makes you come out this way?” Sentinel sat back in its seat, peeling some kind of alien fruit silently, before offering some to Notori. Notori took it silently, biting into it after looking at it for a few moments. Suddenly, she sat up in her seat, feeling full of energy, her body not burning hot to her anymore as she nearly leapt out of her seat.  
“Kurakol fruit. Native to a world called Psytozia. So, tell me what’s wrong.” Sentinel crossed its legs as Notori looked at the creature.  
“Are you…?” She gave the creature a confused look, before Sentinel just laughed a loud, full hearted laugh.   
“Female! Yes, I’m female. I get that all the time, don’t worry.” Sentinel waved at Notori as she shook her head softly, giant ears flopping back and forth freely.  
“Oh.” Notori leaned back in her seat, looking out at the blackness of the abyss for a long time as Sentinel ate the fruit quietly. “I messed up.” Notori confessed after a time, looking down at the console in front of her.  
“Mhm.” Sentinel nodded in agreement, Notori giving her a confused look as she leaned back even further.  
“Why are you-” Notori couldn’t get offended as Sentinel stood up in her seat.  
“But everyone messes up.” Sentinel stretched her body, a shiver running up her back and through her ears as she let out a squeak of enjoyment. “I mean, I’ve met actual gods who’ve made mistakes they regret to this day. So you messed up. What’re you gonna do about it?”  
Notori huffed softly as Sentinel turned to look at her, looking far younger than anyone Notori had ever met in her life. Sentinel looked like a young girl, yet her voice, her mannerisms, her entire attitude felt like that of a soul far older than anyone she’d ever met.  
“Doing the right thing feels like a far greater burden then anything else in this world, life, or even universe, hells even the next! Running away now might make you feel better, but it won’t for long.”  
“But it doesn’t make me feel better! I ran from them! She left me so easily, so fast, the first chance she could…” Notori slumped back in her seat once more, Sentinel tilting her head to the side.  
“But?”  
“It hurts so much. Not just the pain. I thought we had finally made a connection, finally started getting along. But as soon as she had a chance, she ran. She said she wanted to earn her own victory, fight her way out on her own. But then she ran, faster than I’ve ever run in my life.”  
Sentinel sighs deeply as Notori began to tear up at the thought of it all. And then came the soft laughter, Sentinel dropping back on her backside as she laughed.  
“What?” Notori looked at the odd creature, before Sentinel lunged to the side of her seat, moving with such speed that Notori took almost three full seconds to even register she’d moved.  
“Then go kick her ass! No one knows her better than you, so go kick her ass and make her realize how stupid she is!” Sentinel sits back down in the seat, Notori sitting up in her own as she looked out at the abyss.  
For a time she stared outwards, before nodding shortly. She looked to where Sentinel was, only to find the seat empty, and no trace of the creature that came and left without so much as a sound.  
Notori looked to the world that hung just out of her viewport, the Sentinel World that she’d been traveling to for so long, only to find it closer than it’d ever been. She steeled herself once more and nodded at it, turning the ship around and launching herself off towards Shadow once more.

Notori landed on the same distant moon like she had almost a week ago, the hangar filled to the brim with the crystals she often left behind wherever she went. The walls looked like carved marble, the floor a cracked spider’s web of gemstones.  
She carefully walked through the long hallways that she had run through only days before, the ground traced with her footsteps as she walked. The base felt so cold and isolated, her heartbeat filling her ears as she walked along nervously.  
It took her nearly an hour to make her way back to the room where Shadow had split from her, the room filled with statues of the soldiers, all of them frozen in place for reasons unknown. Shadow and the elderly woman nowhere to be found, Notori made her way through the woman, listening for any signs of where they may have gone. And then she found it, in the form of talking coming from the halls. Notori walked through them quietly, listening for the sound of voices, until she came to a room with the elderly woman and Shadow in it.  
In the time she had been gone, Shadow had customized her newest body, the skin smoothed down to look like marble, a single crack formed along her cheek as she stood towering over the elderly matron of the League of Martyrs.  
“I’ll be needing forces if I intend to enact my revenge.” Shadow spoke with a dignified, apathetic voice as the matron wrote each of her words down. The two paid no mind to Notori as she stepped inside, until she spoke up.  
The third question resonated through the crystalline room, Notori’s voice speaking firmly as she stood defiant of two who thought themselves her better.  
“Did you earn your victory?”  
Shadow stopped talking, slowly turning to face Notori as she twitched an eye, her mouth caught open. The matron scowled and scoffed at the question, waving a hand dismissively at Notori.  
“What kind of silly question is that? Of course my lady earned her victory. She suffered through hells unlike any you could imagine to stand here, free of it all!”  
Notori ignored the old woman as she stared Shadow in her eyes, locking eyes defiantly and holding her ground.  
“You swore to me, you held your oath that you would answer my questions. I could ask five, and you would answer them, no matter what they were. So I ask you now. Did you earn your victory?”  
The two locked eyes as Shadow clenched her teeth, lowering her head in annoyance. Her attack came from nowhere, the powerful wave of force knocked Notori against the closed doorway, bending the metal with the sheer force of it as blood came from Notori’s face from the violent strike.  
As Notori laid in the pain and heat of her body, blood dripping from her nose and eyes as she looked at Shadow, laughing roughly after a moment. “Your heart’s not in it.” The shockwave that hit her again made her lungs feel like they were crushed, before air rushed back into them, her ears ringing as the world swirled around her.  
She knew just how powerful Shadow was, and she didn’t care. She wouldn’t stand to see the closest friend she’d ever had simply run because it was easiest. Notori slowly lifted herself, her body quaking as she raised her fists, showing how determined she was to stand before Shadow as an equal, not some sniveling pet in a chair.   
“Hit me again!” Notori screamed, Shadow obliging as Notori dove to the left, the shockwave still hitting her with full force and sending her into the wall once more. Shadow barely moved, yet her power struck like great walls of destruction.  
Notori could feel her blood running hot, her head swimming as she did her best to steel herself.  
‘Stand.’  
The voice that rang out wasn’t her own, but she didn’t care. She raised her head slowly, looking Shadow in the eye and faltering for only a second. The eyes of a confused, desperate face stared her back, eyes tearing up as Shadow questioned just how deserved her victory was.  
Notori smirked as she stood, feeling a power swelling in her chest as she leaned against the wall and screamed with all her force.  
“HIT ME AGAIN!” Her voice rippled across the floor, Shadow’s hand cracking as Notori’s voice struck her, hesitation in her movements as she struck out once more. This time, Notori dove out of the way, the wall crumbling behind her as she flung herself to safety.  
The matron, however, didn’t settle for such doubt in the movements of her god.   
“My lady, you will kill this blasphemer!” The matron stood, her entire right side coated in the crystals of Shadow’s power, her presence so close to Shadow giving her far greater control than she should be allowed. The matron struck out, Shadow’s body staggering backwards as it crumbled slightly, her power being stolen away as the matron pulled her into her.  
“And if you will not, I will do it for you!” The matron pulled at the power of Shadow, of an ancient being far beyond her own existence, and found power too great for herself.   
A great thunderclap filled the chamber, the walls warping outwards as the moon quaked from the force of Shadow being cut in two. The matron got the power she wanted, but shadow fled to the safest place she knew. The chamber began to collapse all around them, Notori running as she asked her fourth question.  
“Are you alright?”  
She could feel the cold air touching her skin as cracks fell around her, crystals breaking off from her skin.  
‘No. I-I...it’s all wrong!’  
“You’re back, that’s all that matters. We need to stop that crazy bitch from abusing you. Got any plans?” Notori sounded so cool headed, the shadow could do little more than falter inside of her.  
“I’ll figure something out. You just rest, I’ll do something about this. I promise.” Notori ran through the collapsing halls of the moon base, the shadow simply sat in her mind as the two ran for safety.

Notori leapt out into space as the moon base collapsed in full behind her, the matron rising up from the rubble as the power overflowed within her. Notori could sense her growing strength, and it unsettled her as she caught her breath, Shadow’s power still returning to her.  
The moon was cracking under the unrestrained power that the matron had stolen, crystal spires rising all around her as she laughed maniacally to herself. All around her, great shockwaves of force rippled through space, Notori barely able to withstand some of the more powerful ones as Shadow did her best to try and calm down.  
“I need to think of how to beat her.” Notori muttered to herself, trying to figure out what to do about the insane matron, before she came up with an idea. “Shadow! How did the one who killed you do it? Please, try to remember anything!”  
Shadow searched her memories as best as she could as the pillars of crystal below rose higher and higher, Notori doing her best to stay just out of sight, the matron too busy losing her mind to the power surge.  
‘I don’t...he just...i can’t remember!’ Notori hissed in frustration as shadow failed to think of anything, before she landed on one of the crystal spires, steeling her resolve once more.  
“Then I’ll just need to fight her. Keep thinking, I’ll do what I can to run interference.” Notori launched like a missile for the matron, even as shockwaves rolled out towards her constantly.  
The matron spotted her shortly, seeing her clearly amid all the crystal chaos that surged upwards. She laughed in clear amusement, waving her thin hand shortly, sending a massive wave of force out towards her, nearly knocking Notori out of the sky with it as she continued to send wave after wave.  
Notori barely managed to make it to the matron, before a wall of crystals rose to intercept her, sending her soaring upwards from the sudden surge of gemstones, summoned by the matron as she continued to let her power flow out in an unrestrained manner.  
The sky greeted Notori as she felt something in her crack, the sheer force being unleashed by the matron catching up to her as she coughed up shards of marble, pain filling her body.  
‘Wh-what do I do? I don’t know what to do. Notori, I don’t know what to do!’  
Notori laughed as her vision grew hazy, sputtering softly as she floated there above the insane matron.  
‘Why are you laughing?’ Shadow stood in Notori’s mindspace, the two of them looking at each other as Notori closed her eyes from the pain.  
“You called me by my name.”  
‘What?’  
“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me by my name.”  
Notori smiled warmly at Shadow, who simply looked back at her, stunned by just how persistent and stubborn this simply human could be. The fragile, soft, easily scared human that could break as easily as a stick beneath her heel. And yet, as her body finally gave in to its damage, she smiled at something so foolish and simple.  
‘...Morticia.’  
“Hm?” Notori tilted her head as shadow looked down. The pain filled her, her vision hazy, and yet she saw shadow clearer than anything she’d ever seen in her life.  
‘My name. Is Morticia.’ Morticia locked eyes with Notori as they stood in the darkness. All around them, the darkness washing away as Morticia’s memories crashed down upon Notori, the place Notori always came to not her own mind, but the vast, reclusive mind of Morticia.  
Notori watched as Morticia lived on a world unlike anything she’d ever seen, grew greedy and violent despite the utopia she lived in. Watched as that utopia came crashing down because of the discovery of someplace new, and the exodus of its people to this new place they’d never seen.  
Morticia wandered with all those who were unlike herself, and met a race called the Talosians, the Talosians a species designed to collect and organize energy for a being far beyond their own existence. And yet, they worshipped Morticia, who was even beyond their god, yet beneath the god of her original people’s.  
The plan that lasted through countless ages, to steal energy and power from countless universes, with the intent to slay a god above all gods. Of a the chosen of that god standing before her, shamelessly declaring that he would slay her. Morticia killed the god, like she had always dreamed of, a towering woman with raven features and hair, only to be struck down by the creature that served the god.  
Countless years spent in a hell made for her alone, as the god came back effortlessly, Morticia’s foolish plan backfiring on the evil tyrant. And then, of her escaping her own hell, and living countless lives, each time growing more and more distant from the heartless self that she was.  
And now, she stood on the precipice of her freedom, in the dying body of Notori, and she finally understood.  
‘Notori. Thank you.’  
Notori only smiled, before she felt an unstoppable swell of power within her. Her eyes opened suddenly, as she felt a great surge of energy enveloping her. All around her, crystals stopped and began to levitate around her, a corona of energy erupting behind her like a halo of light, a sweeping cape of energy flowing from beneath her hair as she felt herself growing in size. The world and matron below seemed microscopic beneath her, Notori raising a hand to hold the world in her hand, the moon and matron orbiting her slender hand as she stood on the edge of the universe.  
Morticia’s power flowed from her freely, unleashed to its fullest power, Morticia’s form altering Notori’s to match something between them both as Notori looked down at the matron and her childish display of power. And yet, Notori felt only pity for the foolish matron that had claimed the power of a god so greedily.  
Beneath the swelling force of Morticia and Notori, the matron collapsed to her knees, eyes filled with awe and wonder at the beautiful, pale white form that struck the endless dark so vibrantly, a halo of rainbow light swirling behind the empowered Notori.  
“My lady…” The matron knelt and bowed her head, the beauty of it all too much for her weak soul to handle.  
And though Notori and Morticia had all the reason to want the matron dead, they instead plucked her from the moon below and held her in their hand. Notori looked at her and let out a soft breath, nearly toppling the withered matron with the simple action.  
“If you wished to walk again, you only needed to ask.” Notori spoke softly, the matron crying softly as she nodded up at the living goddess before her. Notori rolled her shoulders, decreasing her size slowly as she shrugged off the power surge, her body slowly splitting in two, Morticia’s form standing beside her as they shrank to the size of the matron of martyrs.  
Notori stood before the weeping matron, Morticia looking at her own form, before shrugging and fusing with Notori, much to the surprise of Notori.  
“I thought you wanted your own body?” Notori laughed as she regained her balance from the fusion, the two looking at their own arms as they stood before the awestruck matron.  
‘I like this one.’ Morticia said in a ‘matter-of-fact’ tone. As the two laughed at each other, Notori looked to the waiting matron and sighed softly.  
“What’s your name?” She asked, looking out at the universe before her, and all the possibilities it held.  
“I am Curae, my lady.” Curae was greeted by a hand to the back, nearly getting toppled to the crystalline moon below as Notori laughed at her own strength, still adjusting.  
“Don’t be so uptight! Call me Notori. Curae...we’ve got work to do. Not just the Martyrs, but all of it. This place could do with a hero, don’tcha think?” Notori smiled warmly down at Curae, still towering in size as a product of her fusion with Morticia.  
Curae nodded shortly, eyes locked on Notori before she looked at the universe before her with a new light.  
“Whatever your desires may be...I will be there for you. And...Notori?” Curae looked at Notori with a guilty look, even as she felt her body flourishing with power from Morticia, a semblance of her youth returning to her.  
“What’s up?” Notori smiled down at her as they began to walk towards the light of the universe.  
“Thank you.” Notori just smiled as they walked forwards into existence itself.

Marlow shook her head is disbelief, even as the tall, slender woman that was Notori stood before her, Curae waving to the racers that stared in disbelief at the two crystalline women.  
“I get what you’re trying to say kid, but...I don’t really think I’d be all that good at it, y’know?” Marlow gave Notori a weak look as she shrugged her shoulders.  
“And? I want you. All of you. I figure if I’m gonna make a difference, do the right thing, and help in a way that the old Silver Shield did in the fables and legends, then I need people to help me. We need people to help us. But, only if you’re willing. I won’t ask any of you to do this if you don’t want to, and if you wanna step down at any point, you’re more than welcome to. But, the three of us can’t do on our own.”  
Notori bowed her head as the racers muttered among themselves, even as Morticia poked at one of the racebikes, earning the annoyed complaints of its owner. Notori raised her head and smiled to everyone, a full smile.  
“So...what’d’ya say? Wanna go show how fast we can fix things? Race ya to the finish.” Notori looked at the racers as they perked up at the idea of it being a competition.   
After a few hours of everyone mulling it over, Notori stood on the racetrack, not as an observer, but as a leader of her own little force of do-gooders. She turned back and looked at everyone, smiling as she did.  
“Remember. Observe, then we try to help how we can. If you ever need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. We fight for those who can’t-” Notori said, before the crowd raised their hands and cheered back, “-so they can stand even when we can’t!” Notori chuckled softly, before her band of heroes surged upwards to the sky, crystals trailing behind them as Morticia led the pack, her power radiating among them all, even as she took Notori’s hand.  
The two smiled to each other, twirling through the air, spiraling together until a single form broke through the atmosphere of Upsilon VI, starlight washing over them all. And for once, Notori felt something she didn’t know she could feel anymore.  
Love.


End file.
